bengaluru

Praveen Sood, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) talked recently about effective traffic management.Given that only about 1% of the total traffic violations are actually ever fined and the traffic police department is just 2500 strong, what is the way forward? Sood has mentioned (The Hindu, January 31) how about 40% of road space is taken up by parking mostly unauthorised. Earlier at the Jayanagar meeting, Sood talked about active Residents' Welfare Associations can replicate the Brigade Road parking model and charge vehicles for parking. They can also help prevent illegal parking - Clamps, he said, can be bought by the…

Among all the animals, snakes fascinate us the most. The very word ‘snake' causes a rush of emotions, unfortunately mostly negative. This is mostly because we do not know much about them and thus misunderstand and fear them. There are over 270 different species of snakes in India most of which are harmless to humans. However four species are venomous and one of them is the Cobra. A resting cobra. Pic: Vikram Nanjappa. The Cobra has made itself at home in Bengaluru. They are usually found in agricultural fields and fallow areas on the periphery of the city but with…

Saw this awe-inspiring scene at Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens. Busy bee. Pic: Ravi Kaushik. The bee skipped from flower to flower and I had a tough time keeping up. No Image processing done.⊕

Trees, plants and shrubs are all important parts of the urban ecosystem. Without them there would be very little urban wildlife. It is impossible to separate the animal from its habitat and Bangalore has the privilege of having many varieties of flowering and non-flowering trees. These trees comprise of both native and non-native species that were introduced into the city. Some of these non-native trees have been in India for long that we take them to be native, some have adapted and flourished so well that we now call them ‘naturalised'. The Temple Tree. Pic: Vikram Nanjappa. The Frangipani ,…

Even as the BJP government totters this weekend, yet another scam in the government's favourite playground - Bengaluru city - stands exposed. For over three years now the spectre of the Akrama Sakrama Bill has been hanging over the city. The bill is meant to 'regularise' illegal buildings in return for owners paying penalties. The premise of such a bill is that the BBMP will otherwise put all measures in place to bring the percentage of violations down to the single digits (some percentage in every society will flout the law) with stiff penalties. Regularising illegal buildings is therefore imagined…

Golden Goddess. Pic: Ravi Kaushik. The various festivals that we celebrate in Bangalore ensure that we have an ever changing landscape dotted with electric goddesses like the above one.⊕ 

The word 'Rodent' usually makes the hair on the back of our necks stand up. We associate the word with rats and mice which we occasionally encounter near our homes and makes us reach out for our rat traps and rat poison. In our minds they are unwanted pests that need to be dealt with severely. The three-striped palm squirrel is a very adaptable species and have made their home in the urban environment. Pic: Vikram Nanjappa. However there is one rodent that we find extremely cute and which lives in our close proximity. I am referring to the common…

S Viswanath, from Outer Ring Roads Association shares the following information on the state of Ring Road at Bellandur junction. The U-turn at Intel junction after Bellandur is now completely blocked, so please drive carefully and move to the right lane after the Intel junction. The traffic police and ORRCA team is doing all possible to ensure smooth traffic. BDA work has created muddy messes at each junction. BDA has not cleared the sand/mud and this is blocking smooth flow of water at various spots. At the connections between service road/main road, the gutter is blocked and huge pile of…

Office workers head home late on a working day. Taken at the Sarjapur Flyover Junction. Pic by Ravi Kaushik.⊕

INTACH's Parichay at Kudlu earlier this week started off most unusually - with a sacrifice. As one group of people assembled near the Muneshwara temple in Kudlu, waiting for the Parichay (heritage walk) to begin, another set of people had gathered there for a sacrifice of two goats and two chickens. INTACH Parichay to Bangalore’s Tanks, led by Rohan D’Souza. Pic: Arul Jegadish. With that auspicious beginning, this Parichay's walk leader Rohan D;Souza, began talking to the group about Bangalore's lakes. Or tanks, to be more precise. As Rohan, a researcher at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), pointed out,…